Beach-sand plan waits for Coastal Commission

A federal plan to beef up the beach in San Clemente with a fresh carpet of sand every six years is on temporary hold.

State and federal regulatory agencies are discussing how much sand is the right amount, how much monitoring to require and how to deal with any unwanted effects from plopping 251,000 cubic yards of sand onto an eroded beach.

In September, when the California Coastal Commission was to have held a hearing on the project, proceedings were postponed for two months. This week, when the hearing was to have resumed, it was postponed again.

A 10-year feasibility study by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers led to a 50-year, $155 million beach-replenishment project to protect coastal infrastructures.

The project is before the Coastal Commission for a determination of whether it is consistent with California's coastal conservation act. The plan is to place a layer of sand 50 feet wide onto a 3,400-foot-long stretch of beach extending up and down the coast from the San Clemente Pier.

The Coastal Commission's staff concurs with the proposed 50-foot width, but the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and other agencies are recommending it be reduced to 33 feet wide – at least at the outset – to minimize possible effects on undersea habitats, a Coastal Commission staff report says.

Both options are technically feasible, said Tom Bonigut, San Clemente's assistant city engineer and liaison to the project.

"The Corps' analysis shows that both alternatives will not have significant impacts on habitat," Bonigut said Wednesday. "Therefore, the recommended plan is still the 50-foot alternative because it maximizes the net benefits of the project without significant environmental impacts."

Applying a lesser width of sand could make it necessary to do more-frequent replenishments, which could offset the benefits of using less sand, the Coastal Commission report says. One of the commission's proposed conditions of approval is to not allow recurring replenishments until the Coastal Commission is satisfied that effects from the first replenishment have been adequately addressed and habitats restored.

Bonigut said he doesn't believe the postponements of the hearing will affect the process. The Army Corps needs to ask Congress for funding and the city needs to ask the California Department of Boating and Waterways to fund the city's required share.

If the project wins approval and funding, the first importation of sand by barge from a sea-floor site off Oceanside would take place over a four-month period during fall and winter. Bonigut said he believes 2014 is probably the earliest the initial sand could be laid.

"It really couldn't happen sooner than 2014 due to the preconstruction monitoring period that is part of the project," Bonigut said.